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On 18 April 2012, the NAN project team, participating artists, instructors, and lecturers have all met in Adatepe to realize a Creative Documentary Development Workshop. Adatepe is a village located on the slopes of Ida Mountains in the North Aegean region of Turkey, and Taşmektep is the civil initative founded by the residents of that village. Taşmektep in Turkish means "school made of stone", a reference to the local architectural style and building material that is unique to the village.

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Let’s start with a few satellite pictures to help you with some orientation first. Up here in the North Aegean, which is the target geography of our project, and right across the northern tip of the Lesvos island, we have this large cavity into the Anatolian shelf, which we call the Edremit Bay.

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The southern shoreline of the Edremit Bay has always been more popular historically, mainly due to Ayvalik, an old Greek settlement, which is still a central sea port and a touristic attraction for both domestic and international visitors. But on the north coast, we have this little town called “Küçükkuyu”, which means “Little Well” in Turkish.

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Zooming in closer, we see Küçükkuyu, conveniently located on the main coastal highway to İzmir. And further up north, leaving the shoreline and climbing up the mountains, we see the village of Adatepe.

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Before doing that climb, however, we should spare a few words about Küçükkuyu first. Küçükkuyu was a little tiny fishing village up untill the mid of the 20th century. After the construction of the coastal highway to İzmir in 1950s, the whole shoreline rapidly developed into a touristic attraction, preferred mostly by the elderly and retired people from Ankara and Istanbul to spend their summers.

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But for the last 10 years or so tourism has become the hottest economical activity, and we started to see a lot of hotels, restaurants, cafes etc. just popping out at an incredible pace. We have, in fact, used some of those facilities in Küçükkuyu during our workshop, mainly for accommodation purposes.

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Nowadays, especially in summers, Küçükkuyu is a lively town, buzzing with tourists and merchants. It is also quite popular due to its open-bazaar, which is on every Friday, where farmers from villages all around come in and sell their products, very fresh and very moderately priced.

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So leaving Küçükkuyu behind, we start our climb up the montain, which is part of the range called Kaz Dağları, the Goose Mountains. In ancient times, the main peak of the range was named as “Mount Ida”, a mythological name, which, according to several sources from the classical antiquity, was given by the Cretan sailors as a reference to the other Mount Ida in Crete, where the mother goddess Rhea, the mother of Zeus, consigned the infant baby to his foster mother Amalthea for nurturing. The road to the village ascends curling along the pine trees...

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But it’s mostly the olive trees that dominate the landscape. Production of olive oil was an ancient craft in this geography, and it still is a very important and popular trade. One of the attractions of Küçükkuyu, in fact, is a museum dedicated to the olive oil tradition of the region.

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On the way to the village, you come across with a sign that says “The Altar of Zeus”, which sounds rather promising. So, you may be tempted to follow the trail which takes you to a little spot hidden behind some very old pine trees.

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It might be a little dissapointing at first, because there is not much of an altar to see. All there is, is a rock with some carved steps climbing the top. It is quite controversial why this piece of rock is called the Altar of Zeus in the first place. There is no archeological evidence that would support such a claim, and in fact, some argue that it is actually the base of a watch tower, which was built in the Ottoman period. It’s most probably a fictitious story, conveniently made up in modern times to attract the tourists. But, nevertheless, it is highly recommended to take the stairs and help yourself up to the top of the rock...

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And towards southwest, you see the Lesvos Island. This picture was probably taken on a hot hazy summer day, so you can’t see much in the background. But on a real clear day, especially after it rains and dust in the air is washed away, you can easily see the Lesvos shoreline, which appears so close that you may be deceived to think it is within swimming distance.

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Coming down from the so-called “Zeus Altar”, on your right, you can catch the first glimpse of the village of Adatepe. Adatepe was a settlement florished in the second half of the 19th century, where Greeks and Turks lived together in more than 400 households. The village had an active social life with pubs, bakeries, barber shops, and olive oil factories; there was even a library and a movie theatre.

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After the Greek residents left in 1923-1924 during the population exchange, the social and moral fabric of the local community collapsed. Then the Muslim immigrants arriving from Lesvos and Crete were placed in the houses left by the Greeks, and the village maintained its population till 1950s.

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After the construction of the İzmir coastal highway, however, families started to flee the village in order to go to big cities trying to find better jobs. The decline continued till late 1980s, when a handful of intellectuals seeking to break away from the chaotic city life re-discovered the village, and decided to settle in.

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They started to buy the old and ruined houses, and re-built them. The good thing was they respected the original construction style, so gradually the village started to resemble its old glorious days. Sadly, there are only about 25 native households left in Adatepe today. These are the families born and raised in the village for a number of generations, and their number is still decreasing by each year.

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There are about 120 houses today in the village, but only a small fraction of them belongs to the local villagers. The rest is owned by the "city people" mostly from Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir, most of whom only spend a limited time, a month or two each year, in the village.

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Yet, there are also a handful of households, people who came from big cities and decisively settled in the village for good, and who live in the village all year round. But their number is really small.

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Over the last several years, the village began to attract more and more tourists, most of whom come for single-day visits, but an increasing number intending to stay longer. So, there were first open-air cafes, and restaurants...

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And then a number of small boutique hotels opened up. Today, Adatepe has already become a favorite holiday spot, mostly for people looking alternatives to conventional “sea-sand-and-sun” type of vacations.

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Built around early 1940s, Adatepe had a primary school building, which served the children of the village. But it had to be shut down as more and more families went away from the village, and there were no more enough students left to justify operating a school. The building, left alone unattended, gradually decayed and perished...

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But in 1997, the Taşmektep initiative rented the place from the state authority. They spent about four years renovating the building and struggling with a stiff brueacracy in order to obtain the required permissions, and created a unique environment for cultural activities both for the locals and the visitors as well.

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During the summer, from June to October, Taşmektep organizes seminars on topics from various disciplines like philosophy, literature, art and art history, astronomy, political sciences and others. During really hot summer days, some of the classes are held in the garden.

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Taşmektep also runs an artist-in-residence program, which hosts various highly acclaimed Turkish artists for several weeks every year. The works created during the program are exhibited and discussed in workshops that follow.